Wyck Godfrey

If there’s one thing we love about dystopian novels for young adults, it’s the idea that in the future, smart, brave teenagers will save the world from the terrible, oppressive world the grownups created for them. The Hunger Games‘ Katniss gives us hope for the next, next, next generation. In Marie Lu’s Legend, which is in stores today, we have two brilliant 15-year-olds ready to kick ass, if they don’t kill each other first. And for day two of Dystopian Week, we’d like to introduce you to Day and June.

Legend (the first in a trilogy, of course) is already in development as a movie — produced by Twilight‘s Wyck Godfrey and Marty Bowen, and directed by Jonathan Levine, who’s making zombie-in-love YA adaptation Warm Bodies for Summit right now. (Head over to Hollywood Crush for an interview with Lu about the book and her involvement in the movie.)

We’ve been hearing about it for MONTHS now, so we were almost worried the book couldn’t possibly live up to the hype. If it were just up to the action sequences and the vision of a dark future in which the Republic of California is a country under military rule, at war with the Colonies (the rest of the former U.S.), the novel might not be such a phenom. It’s the characters that make it so. Day has been living on his own since he escaped execution at age 10, and now he’s the Republic’s most-wanted criminal, due to his daring, Robin Hood-esque pranks. He robs banks and sets military equipment on fire, but mostly just tries to steal enough to provide for his mother and brothers while he and his young sidekick Tess live in the streets.

June is the Republic’s most promising prodigy and is nearing her graduation from college and into a military life at just 15. She’s looking forward to following in the footsteps of her brother Metias, who’s raised her since the death of their parents.Read more…